


Karma

by Absolutely_Barbaric, SpnWolf



Series: Request Fics [3]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Blood, Gunshot, Hurt/Comfort, Hyperventilation, Illness/injury, M/M, Original Characters (not mine) - Freeform, Panic Attack, Requests, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-30
Updated: 2018-06-30
Packaged: 2019-05-31 01:16:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15108722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Absolutely_Barbaric/pseuds/Absolutely_Barbaric, https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpnWolf/pseuds/SpnWolf
Summary: A fic request for SpnWolf and their OCs Austin and Daniel. These two boys were absolutely precious!Daniel and Austin have one hell of a first meeting.





	Karma

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you SpnWolf for this fic request, I loved hearing all the details about your OCs and hope to hear more some day!

“… _There_  he is. Coming back to us now, are you?”

 

Not a single muscle in Austin’s body was happy when he woke up with a start. Though his eyes opened slowly to piece together the blurry fuzz that become of his vision, he couldn’t keep himself from flinching a little, or comprehend just how painful that was.

 

He’d been kidnapped. Or…got lost and woke up somewhere else? Or maybe he had amnesia, because he couldn’t name a single person he saw in front of him, nor where the hell he was. Seeing this, the stranger who must have spoke came to his bedside- this was a hospital, he realized- and offered him a type of smile he’d never seen before. Sympathetic, sad, relieved somehow…What in the world happened before he woke up?”

 

“I bet you’re wondering what in the world happened before you woke up,” Stranger said.

 

 _No, I’m wondering how you read my mind,_  Austin wanted to say. His lips wouldn’t even move. Despite all the pain, he felt so doped up that just blinking made him dizzy. Stranger’s smile faded a little, with only sympathy remaining. “It’s all right if you don’t remember. A lot happened in a short amount of time.”

 

“Mr. Oliver, I’m going to flush your IV now.”

 

Austin’s eyes, both colors alight with fear, flicked over to the nurse who approached him. She sure didn’t look friendly. And once she had the thin tube running through his arm in her hands, he realized he was way right. His body jolted when a cold liquid seemed to go straight through his veins, only amplifying the throb of his left side to a tear jerking degree. She frowned down at him, then turned to mess with another vial on the tray behind his head.

 

“Relax, kid…She’s setting up a little morphine for you. Look at me.”

 

Too shaken to panic at all, Austin did as he was told and met eyes with the stranger, his chest rising and falling with so much tension he thought a string would snap within his lungs.

 

“Do you remember who I am?”

 

The pair that looked back at him was so deep and green, and… _familiar,_  looking at him with all this worry, he could swear he’d seen it before. Like he’d  _just_  seen it. He knew who this man was…This man was…

 

* * *

 

Four in the morning was  _not_  a good time to walk home.

 

Austin knew that. But six years after turning eighteen, he still had a tendency to declare himself an adult with no curfew and go on to learn why curfews existed in the first place, over and over again. This time around it was inevitable. Who could resist a  _live_  Smash Bros. tournament with some of the city’s number one players? Granted it was held at little more than an old school friend’s basement with official catering by three vans and a lot of White Castle, but he’d be damned if he ever regretted going. Not many people on this earth could say they were lucky enough to jump in and play head to head with  _the_  GhostriderXXX, although he wasn’t exactly as cool looking as Austin pictured in his head.

 

Regardless, he knew it was bad to be getting home this late. That being said, his place was only a five minute walk after the bus ride. It would be too big of a coincidence to get ambushed by then.

 

After one minute, he took a shortcut into the alley and stumbled across a man with a gun in his hand.

 

For a second there, he thought he would just pass out on the spot. This couldn’t happen to him- stuff like this only happened to…other people. Except everyone was another person. And all of those people thought it could only happen to other people, so in the end, he was left standing frozen in place, his eyes traveling slowly from the revolver to the man wielding it.

 

Never in his life had he seen someone who just  _looked_  crazy.

 

“You been followin’ me?” the man spat. His voice was weepy, like that of a ghost. Austin stepped back, terrified to move any further.

 

“N-No, no, I would never…I don’t know you-” he tried. It didn’t work. Somehow even more agitated, the man lifted his gun and pointed square at his head, his teeth chattering so disturbingly yet Austin couldn’t shut his eyes despite badly needing to blink.

 

“You’ve been _following_  me! The goverment sent you to track me, to seize all of my private records- I won’t let you people catch me!”

 

“Please, I-I don’t…I don’t have any money, I don’t know what…w-what you’re talking about…!” Austin never noticed his own hands rising in defense, but he couldn’t lower them when he did. He couldn’t hope to stop them from shaking, either. As his bottom lip quivered with fright, he tried to see past his tears for any sort of escape, any way he could talk himself out of this, and none of it seemed possible. This crazy guy and his own begging for his life would be the last thing he ever heard.  _This_  would be the last thing he saw. He didn’t want this. He knew there had to be a way out of this, he just couldn’t think.

 

Not a moment too soon, another voice broke the tension.

 

“ _Hands where I can see them._ ”

 

 _Thank God,_ Austin wanted to cry right there,  _the police._  This had to be good karma for three weeks ago when a security guard gave him a hard time and he didn’t say anything back to him. All he could think of was what a savior this man was, what a huge coincidence it had to be that he was walking by at the right time, and so many things running through his mind he couldn’t count them. He lost himself in his own relief so deep that he didn’t hear the argument between the gun wielder and the cop anymore, or when it stopped, or even when the gun went off anyway.

 

He heard the second time.

 

He heard a gun go off, and he saw the crazy man’s fall backwards motionless in a puddle, but he didn’t understand why he just couldn’t move. Why he felt like there were two bees buzzing in his ears, or the immense pressure seizing his left side until he was sure someone had to be squeezing him there. He looked up at the mystery police officer, but the police officer was just looking back at him in sheer horror, then down at his side, where Austin followed his gaze.

 

Blood, so much blood he couldn’t comprehend it. He couldn’t really see it, but he knew by the fuzzy red blotches in his vision that that had to be what felt so warm and wet at his side. The police officer was yelling something at him that he just couldn’t hear, moving in this odd way that only fit together once Austin understood that he was lying on the ground and this man was actually above him, though he didn’t remember getting there.

 

As soon as he felt a hand touch his face, that was when it sank in. His eyes shot wide.

 

The scream that wanted to tear out of him got choked halfway into his throat, but it didn’t stop the unfathomable hurt his body had never known from bringing tears to his eyes, dripping down his cheeks. He was shaking terribly, and he didn’t know anymore if it was from pain or fright. He simply didn’t know what to do. He barely even knew what just happened.

 

“…alleyway. Still conscious…Officer Daniel Russel,” Austin registered the words from such a distance even though he was right there, inches away from the cop who was studying his face with a look so serious he almost thought he might get shot again. “…Forget about that. Just send EMS, quickly.”

 

EMS. He really had been shot. It was so unbelievable that Austin really wanted to laugh all of a sudden, but all he could do was cry, and even that he couldn’t do very well. Because the more he thought about it, the more he realized that he really hadn’t been saved, no matter how close he was to making it out of here alive. He’d been shot…And now he was going to die.

 

As soon as he thought that, his stomach lurched. He couldn’t hold onto the already uneven pattern of his breathing anymore. This was still karma; karma for going to this stupid tournament when he knew he shouldn’t have, karma for never doing the things he should, karma for… _for everything_ , he was sure of it. With each gasp sending his mind into a spiral, his side bled that much faster, his hands desperately fisting at his ripped shirt fabric over the wound and doing more harm than good. He completely forgot that Daniel was even there, until his hands were suddenly forced away by a grip strong enough to silence him for a second.

 

“ _Hey,_ ” Daniel said. “I need you to hold on, alright? You’re gonna be okay.”

 

“ _I’m gonna die-!_ ” Austin sobbed helplessly. Getting out a single word was unbearable, yet it only made him weep harder before he was grabbed again, this time on his shoulder. Once again, the grip was strong enough to quiet him, just for a second.

 

“You’re not gonna die. But you’re not helping yourself by hyperventilating like that.” Another hand was pressed into his side, evoking that scream from earlier that got stuck in his throat. Daniel whispered softly but sternly, “ _Calm down._ ”

 

The hand was pressing a heavy wad of cloth against his wound, probably a jacket since he was wearing one earlier. Austin couldn’t remember him taking it off. But he couldn’t really think about anything right now; as bewildering as it was, all he could think about was that Daniel’s hand was shaking over that jacket. He was injured, and all he wanted to do was tell him he was okay all of a sudden, even though just seconds ago he was sure he would die. He felt captivated, long enough to slow his breathing down until Daniel started saying something else.

 

“Don’t go to sleep,” the officer said. “Not ‘til EMS gets here. Stay with me, kid, you gotta stay with me…”

 

But he wasn’t ‘the officer’. For some reason he was Daniel, like Austin knew that was his name all this time and hadn’t just heard it over the radio. Maybe it was just how firm this guy was, he really believed everything he was saying. Except he couldn’t stay awake, not for how long Daniel was asking for.

 

“I feel sick…” Austin slurred. He could actually sense how pale he was in his cheeks. How could he be asked to stay awake when it hurt so much to?

 

Daniel pressed harder against the wound, and his eyes snapped open again to the sound of blaring sirens.

 

“We’re gonna get you to a hospital, okay? I’ll be there when you wake up, I promise. Keep your eyes open ‘til- Over here!”

 

Half-lidded, Austin watched him flag over a team of people in matching uniforms, distantly wondering what this whole parade was about. He wondered how he got to be on the ground like this again, couldn’t exactly remember, and wondered if he was this tired because he really was going to die after all. As though reading his thoughts, Daniel took his hand.

 

“Look at me, kid.”

 

Austin looked.

 

“ _You’re gonna be okay._ ”

 

* * *

 

“ _Daniel?_ ”

 

“See, I told you you’d be okay,” Stranger- he guess he had to call him Daniel now- said. His smile returned, a little fuller with confidence. Austin laid his head back, hating how tired the morphine was making him again when he’d only just woken up. He had to say thank you or something.

 

Daniel took a seat next to his bed with a look that already said ‘no need’, watching the nurse depart in a huff. He didn’t know what had her so irritated, but his mind was focused on this cop. It amazed him that he actually did stay this whole time, however long it had been.

 

“Thank your lucky stars the bullet missed anything vital. If it had gone any other way…” Daniel crossed one knee over the other with a flash of a smile, but soon his gaze had been cast down towards his shoes, a frown soon in replacement. “I…want to apologize, for letting that happen. I thought I could calm that guy down, but before I knew it…”

 

Pulling strength from nowhere, Austin reached out over the side of his bed to put a hand on Daniel’s shoulder as he had done earlier. Except he was way too far away, so he was just awkwardly kind of stretching until Daniel slowly pulled closer and let his palm touch his bicep. As soon as he realized what Austin was trying to do, laughter bubbled out of him sadly and uncertainly while he lowered himself a little more until he got his shoulder like he meant. Austin smiled, dizzy.

 

“Don’t worry about it,” he mumbled. His eyes fluttered closed, relishing the gentle waves of relief that the morphine brought him instead of cursing it anymore. “You were right…I’m okay. ‘Cause of you…” It didn’t hurt as much to talk, but it felt like each phrase pushed him closer and closer to sleep. Daniel shook his head, laughing to himself once more as he rose to ruffle Austin’s hair.

 

“I guess I owed it to you, huh?” he quietly spoke. “Get some more rest.”

 

Austin opened his eyes and watched him hazily, unable to speak anymore.

 

“…I’ll still be here when you wake up. Is that what you want?”

 

With a smile, and the faintest hint of a nod, Austin ever so slowly drifted back off into unconsciousness.


End file.
